Is America a Police state?

[Jacksnyte]

Originally Posted by Shadow Wolf

I don't see how it is at all legal to guarantee there will be inmates, but here are some links:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/prison-privatization_b_1414467.html

So I had it backwards, but it's still terrible that profits are becoming the motive in the criminal-justice system.

Profits have been the motive for many years. I have been through the system a couple of times, and I can attest to the fact

[Revoltingest]

We should note that "policing for profit" exists even when it's just government.
Asset Forfeiture Report | The Institute for Justice
In my small town, City Council would openly discuss raising revenues by changing laws to write more tickets.

[Revoltingest]

Online threat

Imagine you're sitting at home, comfortable on the couch, watching the Food Network, when all of a sudden a heavily armed SWAT team breaks down your door and storms into your living room.
That's what happened to 18-year-old Stephanie Milan, who was watching TV in her family's Evansville, Ind., home last Thursday (June 22), when a team of police officers broke down her storm door — the front door was already open — and tossed a flash-bang stun grenade into the room.

OK, we know it was purported to be an accident, & a result of cop stupidity, but such
events persist because they're shielded too much from liability for their thuggish blunders.
I propose treating those responsible the same as any other felon who breaks into a house
& commits a violent crime. This might not always be fair, but it would sure create an
atmosphere of due diligence & competence.

[Kathryn]

War on Lemonade:

The Inexplicable War on Lemonade Stands - Forbes

[Revoltingest]

Voters fail to understand that power given is power which will be used....often in unanticipated ways.

[painted wolf]

Oh the joys of asset forfeiture...

Make a family bring cash to pay someones bail and then have a drug dog find cocaine on it so you can keep it and send them home with nothing. You get to keep the cash and the prisoner. And remember almost all money in the USA has trace amounts of cocaine on it, so you're guaranteed to get a positive. Then you just claim the only way for a poor person to get that much cash is illegally and ta-da... free money!

When the Brown County, Wis., Drug Task Force arrested her son Joel last February, Beverly Greer started piecing together his bail. She used part of her disability payment and her tax return. Joel Greer's wife also chipped in, as did his brother and two sisters. On Feb. 29, a judge set Greer's bail at $7,500, and his mother called the Brown County jail to see where and how she could get him out. "The police specifically told us to bring cash," Greer says. "Not a cashier's check or a credit card. They said cash."
So Greer and her family visited a series of ATMs, and on March 1, she brought the money to the jail, thinking she'd be taking Joel Greer home. But she left without her money, or her son.
Instead jail officials called in the same Drug Task Force that arrested Greer. A drug-sniffing dog inspected the Greers' cash, and about a half-hour later, Beverly Greer said, a police officer told her the dog had alerted to the presence of narcotics on the bills -- and that the police department would be confiscating the bail money.
"I told them the money had just come from the bank," Beverly Greer says. "We had just taken it out. If the money had drugs on it, then they should go seize all the money at the bank, too. I just don't understand how they could do that."

It took four months for Beverly Greer to get her family's money back, and then only after attorney Andy Williams agreed to take their case. "The family produced the ATM receipts proving that had recently withdrawn the money," Williams says. "Beverly Greer had documentation for her disability check and her tax return. Even then, the police tried to keep their money."

Under Asset Forfeiture Law, Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families' Bail Money


wa:do

[painted wolf]

Originally Posted by Revoltingest

Voters fail to understand that power given is power which will be used....often in unanticipated ways.

And let's not forget the intoxicating mix that power and money have on people... even otherwise good people.

wa:do

[Revoltingest]

Originally Posted by painted wolf

And let's not forget the intoxicating mix that power and money have on people... even otherwise good people.
wa:do

Just wait til I get in power.....boowahahahwhhwhahhwhwhhwhhwhw, etc!

[gnomon]

Inconsistency.

Evansville SWAT Team Responds to Online Threats, Raids the Wrong House | The Agitator

Note the complete lack of regret. Or even consideration of the possibility that they might have first considered the possibility that this was an open wireless connection, that the comments had been spoofed, or that they might have mistakenly traced an IP address to the wrong physical address.

Evansville Police Not All That Concerned About Raiding the Wrong House | The Agitator

Why did police toss flashbang stun grenades and break the storm door?


Bolin said police wanted the element of surprise against a man they thought could have been armed and dangerous.


“They were very serious threats, and then coupled with the picture of the guy that listed that as his address, we’re thinking you know, obviously the poster of those comments hates the police,” he said.


“We train with a SWAT team for a reason. This isn’t like a street fight where two guys bloody their lips. Our officers have families, and they want to go home at the end of the night. I mean, we don’t sign up for this to take a chance to get killed.”

In short, the police raided a house in which they believed someone was threatening them. They went in full SWAT and if you watched the video linked in the first link you would see that they threw in flashbangs before knocking. They had the wrong house because this home had an open wifi connection that someone else was using to post the threats. After some investigation the police did not raid but rather knocked at the home of the new suspect and questioned him at the scene without the use of SWAT and the use of flashbang grenades.

Of course the police chief will not admit to any sort of wrongdoing on the part of his police department in the initial raid.

[Revoltingest]

Google gets on board with gov't....
Prison Planet.com » Google Shopping Censors All Gun, Ammo & Accessories Results